[rescue] Xenix386 software? (TRS-80 Mod II)

[microcode at zoho.com]

On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 09:01:23AM -0400, Joshua D. Boyd wrote:
> microcode at zoho.com wrote:
> 
> >On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 08:15:51PM -0700, Sheldon T. Hall wrote:
> >
> >> On the bigger side, there are lots of COBOL programmers maintaining
> >and
> >> expanding all that old stuff.  If you know COBOL, FORTRAN, BAL, JCL,
> >or
> >> any of the languages of that era, bathe semi-regularly, and aren't a
> >> complete lunatic, you can probably get a job in any city in the USA.
> >
> >Yeah for 25-40 (tops) bucks an hour. People mostly can't afford to work
> >for
> >that any more if the jobs are even offered.
> 
> Outside of the large cities 25 - 40 hour is pretty good.  In my zip code, the average household income is under $37,000, which would be $18.50/hr, assuming that the average is a single income house, which clearly isn't true.

In zipcodes where the average is under $37,000 they likely don't have any
businesses running mainframes. I didn't mean to get into whether 25-40
dollars per hour is good in a vacuum or compared to other jobs. I am saying
to offer people 1/4 or 1/2 of what they used to get 5 years ago is nothing
to be happy about. My comments were about mainframe salaries since that's
what Sheldon was referring to and that's what I've worked on since the
1970s. Like a lot of other stuff I've watched the "powers that be" piss away
talent and skills and lay off tens of thousands of people at a time and
"replace" them with a motel room full of H1Bs. That doesn't work, those
companies sell out or go out of business after pissing off all their
customers. But it sure looks great on this quarter's financials.

I know what the companies I worked for get for the products I wrote, and
there is no excuse for these mass layoffs and H1B mania except sheer
disgusting inhumane MBA greed, way beyond greed done in good taste. When you
sell a product for 200 to 500 grand a copy (or more) and get 20% of the
license fee in annual support and only have 5-7 guys total supporting it,
you don't need to make us feel grateful for offering us 40 bucks an
hour. There is such a thing as common decency, although looking at corporate
America these days I sure as hell can't see it from here.

Clint had it right, "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's rainin'"